


An Ordinary Timeline

by chaoticrandomness



Category: Zero Escape (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/M, Falling In Love, Past Domestic Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-14
Updated: 2017-01-14
Packaged: 2018-09-17 08:50:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9314270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaoticrandomness/pseuds/chaoticrandomness
Summary: Diana and Sigma, in a world without the morphogenetic field.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [interabang](https://archiveofourown.org/users/interabang/gifts).



No one in this hospital knows anything about my husband. None of my fellow nurses know about the divorce or the restraining orders or exactly why I moved across the country to a town where no one knew me. 

 

_ If I hadn’t promised myself to fly someplace where I would never see him… I would’ve never gone through with the divorce at all.  _

 

“Diana, you were looking for Mr. Klim’s papers, right?” another nurse asks as she passes me a folder. 

 

“What’s he in for this time?” 

 

Sigma Klim is a graduate student who seems to get injured every time he comes within sight of a cat in danger. Every single time he arrives in the hospital, I end up as his nurse, and we’ve developed some sort of friendship because of this. 

 

_ “Have I met you before?”  _

 

_ “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you… you’re really pretty…” _

 

My co-worker’s left me alone with this folder, so I open it and begin to read through the various cat-related incidents Sigma’s gotten into. Except the only thing inside this folder is a pink post-it note. 

 

_ Diana,  _

 

_ Will you go out on a date with me?  _

 

I have no idea how Sigma found this folder. I have no idea why I even thought he wrote that note, when I don’t even know what his handwriting looks like. 

 

But if I truly want to start over, why  _ shouldn’t  _ I get to know who he is outside of the hospital? 

 

* * *

 

_ I have no idea if this is a good idea or not, but at least he’s not going to hit me…  _

 

There’s a park outside the hospital that’s filled with benches, and Sigma’s sitting on one of them. Luckily, there are no cats nearby, but there are a few kids playing tag and flying kites… 

 

_ I… used to want kids… and he told me that we couldn’t divorce because it would fuck up our children’s lives, nevermind that spousal abuse is one of the risk factors for abusing your own kids… _

“Diana, are you okay?” he asks as he taps me on the shoulder and abruptly jolts me back to reality. 

 

_ You got a divorce and you’re on the other side of the country from him. The nearest person to you is a graduate student who saves cats and regularly ends up in the hospital because of his feline-related heroism, so you are not in danger…  _

 

“What do you study?” I ask, for we probably should talk about something less serious than why I moved here. 

 

“Quantum physics, robotics, and a bunch of other stuff. Have you heard of the new advancements in prosthetics, Diana?” he answers, and he seems so ridiculously  _ enthusiastic  _ about all of this, that I can’t help but smile. 

 

“What is it?” I ask, as we walk back to the bench and sit down. 

 

_ If they can made skin-colored limbs with electrical wring that mimics neurons, that would better the quality of life for so many people…  _

 

“They’re working on a type of tissue that can perfectly mimic human skin.” 

 

“Does it have artificial neurons as well?” I ask, and part of me wants to tell him that said tissue would probably be better used for skin grafts, but I don’t want to seem nitpicky. 

 

_ He’s not going to berate you for disagreeing with him! Remember that entire conversation you had about timeline-jumping? _

 

_ “If you shift into your body in the alternate timeline to save yourself, aren’t you just killing them?”  _

 

_ “But wouldn’t that consciousness also have the ability to shift into… hey, Diana, is everything okay?”  _

 

“Actually, we’ve mostly been using ABT for robots.” he answers, before launching into a story about how he tried to repair his roommate’s therapy-robot, only to accidentally program it to obsessively ramble on about thought experiments and underwear. 

 

* * *

 

_ Quantum physics is actually really cool… and the kids really seem to like the new therapy-robots…  _

 

“Diana, do you mind if I move the rest of my stuff here?” 

 

“You basically live here, Sigma.” I answer, as I look up from his textbook. 

 

“Still, I want to make sure that you’re okay with me leaving stuff in your apartment.” he says, as he sits next to me and holds my hand. 

 

_ I was fine with the textbooks and the blueprints, so I’ll probably be fine with the supplies. Unless I step on one and have to perform surgery on myself… and it’s almost like we’re engaged. _

 

Why did I think that? I wouldn’t mind marrying him, but I also thought the same about my last husband, and I now have a restraining order against him. 

 

_ You’ve known Sigma for a longer period of time and the worst thing he’s done is make cat puns about all of the furniture when drunk.  _

 

_ Still, am I ready for a- _

 

“Diana, is everything okay?” he asks, and I have to tell him about why I moved here. 

 

“Um… before I moved here, I got a divorce, because my husband…” 

 

_ Why can’t I say it? I know what he did was wrong and that it wasn’t my fault for being a bad person, so why is that so hard to say?! It’s been a year!  _

 

“If he hurt you, I will hunt him down and kill him, Diana.”

 

“Luckily, I have a restraining order against him.” I answer, and for some reason, I am smiling and crying and hugging Sigma all at once. 

 

* * *

 

“...so, if we got married, what would you like to do?” he asks me. 

 

“Anything that’s not a traditional wedding.” 

 

_ I had one, and it was awful. I panicked over everything and my ex-husband told me that everything I came up with on my own was wrong.  _

 

“I mean, we do live within driving distance of Nevada.” he answers, and if he’s implying what I think he’s implying, that is quite possibly the most ridiculous thing we could do in the next few years. 

 

Then again, I fell in love with a man who programs sapient robots and makes it his life’s mission to save every single cat he sees, so maybe I do need a bit of ridiculousness in my life. 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed reading this. :)


End file.
